Spiritual Pilgrim

Book excerpt: Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, was the only woman to take an active and independent part in the Methodist Revival of the 18th century. She was converted in 1739, at the age of 32, and became a close friend of Charles Wesley - a friendship which continued despite her conversion to Calvinistic Methodism in 1748. During the last 23 years of her life, she founded a college for training evangelical ministers, supported an orphanage in Savannah, Georgia, encouraged the building of Calvinistic Methodist chapels in England and Wales, and established her own denomination.